British Entrepreneur Unveils Technology That Generates Electricity From Thin Air
A British Lord has unveiled a new innovation that can create electricity from thin air.
The ground-breaking ‘Freevolt’ technology harvests radio frequency energy from existing wireless and broadcast networks, including 4G mobile phone signals and converts it into electricity to power gadgets.
This enables low-energy devices to operate without the need to be plugged in.
The technology is designed to power the smart devices that make up the so-called ‘internet of things’.
Entrpreneur and former science minister Lord Drayson showcased the new system in the Faraday Theatre at London’s Royal Institution, where Michael Faraday once worked on electromagnetism.
Lord Drayson told the BBC: “It doesn’t require any extra infrastructure, it doesn’t require us to transmit any extra energy, it’s recycling the energy which isn’t being used at the moment”.
As well as scavenging energy from mobile phone networks, Freevolt also takes power from wireless internet and digital TV broadcasts.
Drayson Technologies’ first gadget to use Freevolt is a personal air pollution monitor called the CleanSpace Tag.
The technology that Freevolt is based on has been around for some time but hasn’t been used in any commercial products until now.
Critics have suggested that more work may be needed to find out if the networks on which the technology relies for its power would be affected by the energy harvesting.
This isn’t the first technology milestone from Drayson Technologies - in 2013, the company set a world land speed record for a lightweight electric car, reaching a speed of 204.2mph.
Image: Drayson Technologies
